1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

2.
Ab-Soul
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Herbert Anthony Stevens IV, better known by his stage name Ab-Soul, is an American hip hop recording artist from Carson, California. Herbert Anthony Stevens IV was born on February 23,1987, in Los Angeles, after his birth, his family relocated to Germany, where his biological father was stationed in the military. He once recalled being five years old, I was serious into video games and basketball, teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on TV. But I know early on, I really, really liked Michael Jackson, like we all did. At the age of 10, Stevens contracted Stevens–Johnson syndrome, which caused him to be hospitalized and is the origin of his lips and light-sensitive eyes, At ten years old. It was a pretty vivid day, I caught a rare virus called Steven-Johnson Syndrome. And it was very, very life-changing for me and it hindered my vision and my skin configuration. It definitely put a dent in my hoop dreams. I even kept trying to play, I tried to keep playing with my shades on, it was real funny when I think about it now. A lot of my friends were real cool about it and they wouldnt make me feel different or anything like that, but I just kind of figured… I wont have the sharp vision for that. I had to wear shades and shit, people teased me about my lips, and say I look high. I didnt even start smoking weed, until after I graduated from high school, Stevens encountered music at a very young age, due to his family owning a record store. Stevens also began crafting his skills at an early age, I was on BlackPlanet freestyle chat. It is an interesting world. I think that it still exists online, where you freestyle, I think that is where I developed my rhyming skills. I had been rapping a little earlier, maybe around 12, but when I hopped online and into that culture and it really got me going as far as being a rapper. Stevens claims to have written his first verse when he was 12 years old, to the beat of Twistas Emotions, I was like, I can do this, thats a day I remember vividly. From that moment Ive had a keen interest in the whole craft

3.
Eddie Albert
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Edward Albert Heimberger, known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, other well-known screen roles of his include Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, traveling salesman Ali Hakim in the musical Oklahoma. And the sadistic prison warden in 1974s The Longest Yard and he starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television sitcom Green Acres and as Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama Switch. He also had a role as Carlton Travis on Falcon Crest. Edward Albert Heimberger was born in Rock Island, Illinois, on April 22,1906, the oldest of the five children of Frank Daniel Heimberger, a realtor and his year of birth is often given as 1908, but this is incorrect. His parents were not married when Albert was born, and his mother altered his birth certificate after her marriage, when he was one year old, his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Young Edward secured his first job as a boy when he was only six. During World War I, his German name led to taunts as the enemy by his classmates and he studied at Central High School in Minneapolis and joined the drama club. His schoolmate Harriet Lake graduated in the same class, finishing high school in 1926, he entered the University of Minnesota, where he majored in business. When he graduated, he embarked on a business career, however, the stock market crash in 1929 left him essentially unemployed. He then took odd jobs, working as a performer, an insurance salesman. Albert stopped using his last name professionally, since it invariably was mispronounced as Hamburger and he moved to New York City in 1933, where he co-hosted a radio show, The Honeymooners - Grace and Eddie Show, which ran for three years. At the shows end, he was offered a contract by Warner Bros. In the 1930s, Albert performed in Broadway stage productions, including Brother Rat and he had lead roles in Room Service and The Boys from Syracuse. Performing regularly on television, Albert wrote and performed in the first teleplay, The Love Nest. Hosted by Betty Goodwin, The Love Nest starred Albert, Hildegarde, The Ink Spots, Ed Wynn, before this time, television productions were adaptations of stage plays. In 1938, he made his debut in the Hollywood version of Brother Rat with Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman. The next year, he starred in On Your Toes, adapted for the screen from the Broadway smash by Rodgers and Hart

4.
Ray Alder
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Ray Alder has been the lead vocalist of the progressive metal band Fates Warning since their 1988 release No Exit. He has released two albums Engine in 1999 and Superholic in 2002 with Engine. He also sang on Redemptions albums The Origins of Ruin, The Fullness of Time, Snowfall on Judgment Day, This Mortal Coil and he has recently worked with underground emcee/producer Necro for his album entitled Death Rap. Ray Alder was featured at a show with the band Dream Theater at Los Angeles, on March 16,2010, Fates Warning released a deluxe edition of their 1991 album, Parallels. This edition has been fully re-mastered and contains three hours of music and live footage. Parallels was one of Fates Warnings most successful releases due to the success of the singles Eye To Eye, Point Of View. The lineup, the songs and the cover art all came together to make a great package when originally recorded and the bonus DVD really adds a fresh perspective to the album

5.
Gary Allan
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Gary Allan Herzberg, known professionally as Gary Allan, is an American country music artist. His second album, It Would Be You, followed in 1998, Allans third album, Smoke Rings in the Dark, was his first one for MCA Nashville and his first platinum album. His next albums, Alright Guy and See If I Care and his seventh studio album, Living Hard, was released later in 2007. Gary Allan Herzberg was born and raised in La Mirada, California, to Harley, to ensure that the family would focus on music, Allans mother insisted that the familys guitars would always remain visible in the home. At age thirteen, Allan began playing in honky tonks with his father, two years later, he was offered his first recording contract, from A&M Records, but rejected the deal. His parents wanted him to finish his education and his father felt that Allan had yet to develop his own distinctive style, despite his commitment to finishing school, Allan reflects that he was rarely alert in class. I played the bars at night, I was half asleep when I got to school, I thought sleep was what you did when you go to school. After graduating from La Serna High School in Whittier, California, Allan continued to play in the bars with his band, many of the venues they played were packed, and promoters often tried to move them to larger clubs. The moves would have required him to playing some of the older country music, such as covers of George Jones songs. In 1987, Gary married his first wife, Tracy Taylor and he married model Danette Day on November 28,1998 in South Carolina and they divorced in June 1999. His third wife, Angela, committed suicide on October 25,2004, seal and Hill had asked Allan if they could showcase an unsigned act that they were developing there. Hill had arranged to bring the head of A&R from a label to the show to see this other act perform. Allan kindly let them use his stage for the event, giving the new act the opening performance slot that night, Hill promised Gary that they would make sure the A&R person remained there to see his portion of the show. Everyone was knocked out with Allans performance, and very impressed with his voice, from that point on, Byron Hill began sending Gary songs. In the meantime, Allan took a job selling cars and he left a demo tape in the glove box of a truck purchased by a wealthy couple. When the couple discovered that he was the singer, they wrote him a check for $12,000 and this independent funding allowed Allan to go to Nashville to record some of the songs that were on that early demo tape with Byron Hill as producer. On September 11,1995, they worked at Javelina Studios for a couple of days on the four songs that Hill immediately showed to labels, Allans recordings brought serious responses from several labels including Mercury, RCA, and Decca. A meeting was held at a Nashville hotel among Hill, Allan, and friend of Allans

6.
Singing
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds

7.
Roy Acuff
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Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. In 1952 Hank Williams told Ralph Gleason, Hes the biggest singer this music ever knew and you booked him and you didnt worry about crowds. For drawing power in the South, it was Roy Acuff, Acuff began his music career in the 1930s and gained regional fame as the singer and fiddler for his group, the Smoky Mountain Boys. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, and although his popularity as a musician waned in the late 1940s, he remained one of the Oprys key figures and promoters for nearly four decades. In 1942, Acuff co-founded the first major Nashville-based country music publishing company—Acuff-Rose Music—which signed such artists as Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, in 1962, Acuff became the first living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Acuff was born on September 15,1903 in Maynardville, Tennessee to Ida and Simon E. Neill Acuff, the Acuffs were a fairly prominent family in Union County. Roys paternal grandfather, Coram Acuff, had been a Tennessee state senator, Roys father was an accomplished fiddler and a Baptist preacher, his mother was proficient on the piano, and during Roys early years the Acuff house was a popular place for local gatherings. At such gatherings, Roy would often amuse people by balancing farm tools on his chin and he also learned to play the harmonica and jaw harp at a young age. In 1919, the Acuff family relocated to Fountain City, a few south of Maynardville. Roy attended Central High School, where he sang in the chapels choir. His primary passion, however, was athletics and he was a three-sport standout at Central and, after graduating in 1925, was offered a scholarship to Carson-Newman University but turned it down. He played with several baseball clubs around Knoxville, worked at odd jobs. In 1929, Acuff tried out for the Knoxville Smokies, a baseball team then affiliated with the New York Giants. A series of collapses in spring training following a sunstroke, however, the effects left him ill for several years, and he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1930. I couldnt stand any sunshine at all, he later recalled, while recovering, Acuff began to hone his fiddle skills, often playing on the familys front porch after the sun went down. His father gave him records of regionally renowned fiddlers, such as Fiddlin John Carson and Gid Tanner. In 1932, Dr. Hauers medicine show, which toured the southern Appalachian region, the purpose of the entertainers was to draw a large crowd to whom Hauer could sell medicines for various ailments. As the medicine show lacked microphones, Acuff learned to sing loud enough to be heard above the din, a skill that would later help him stand out on early radio broadcasts

8.
Jason Alexander
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Jay Scott Greenspan, known by his stage name Jason Alexander, is an American actor, voice actor, comedian and director. Alexander is best known for his prominent role as George Costanza in the television series Seinfeld, Other well-known roles include Phillip Stuckey in the film Pretty Woman and the title character in the animated series Duckman. Alexander has had a career on stage, appearing in several Broadway musicals including Jerome Robbins Broadway in 1989. He appeared in the Los Angeles production of The Producers and he was the Artistic Director of Reprise. Broadways Best in Los Angeles, where he has directed several musicals, Alexander was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Jewish parents Ruth Minnie, a nurse and health care administrator, and Alexander B. He has a half-sister, Karen Van Horne, and a half-brother, Alexander grew up in Livingston, New Jersey and is a 1977 graduate of Livingston High School. He attended Boston University but left the summer before his senior year and he was later given an honorary degree in 1995. He is a magician, and only switched to acting as a career when he realized that he was unlikely to succeed as a magician. Alexander began his career on the New York stage and is an accomplished singer and dancer. Returning to the stage in 2003, Alexander was cast in a run, opposite Martin Short. Alexander also appeared with Kelsey Grammer in the 2004 musical adaptation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, Alexander was recently named the Artistic Director of Reprise Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where he previously directed Sunday in the Park with George. He is scheduled to direct the revival of Damn Yankees at Reprise. In 2015, he replaced Larry David as the lead in Davids Broadway play Fish in the Dark, Alexander is best known as one of the key cast members of the award-winning television sitcom Seinfeld, in which he played George Costanza. He did, however, win a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his work, before Seinfeld, he starred in a short-lived CBS sitcom called Everythings Relative in 1987 which lasted six episodes. Concurrently with his Seinfeld role, Alexander provided the voice of the character in the cult animated series Duckman. Alexander also voiced Catbert, the director of human resources. Alexander made cameo appearances in the season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Alexander also appeared in the season of Curb Your Enthusiasm

9.
Jason Aldean
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Jason Aldine Williams, known professionally as Jason Aldean, is an American singer. Since 2005, Jason Aldean has been signed to Broken Bow Records and his 2010 album My Kinda Party is certified quadruple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Eight more of his singles have reached the top 10, Aldean was born as Jason Aldine Williams in Macon, Georgia, in the United States. His parents, Barry and Debbie, divorced when he was three and he was raised by his mother, in Macon, where he went to high school at Windsor Academy. During the summer, he would spend time with his father in Homestead, before going to work during the day, his dad would map out guitar chords on notebook paper to show Aldean where to place his fingers to play the chords. Aldean sat and practiced all day while his dad was at work, when his dad got home, he got out his own guitar and they played together. Soon, after hearing a song only a few times, he could play it and his early favorites included George Straits The Cowboy Rides Away, Hank Williams Jr. s The Blues Man, and Alabamas My Homes in Alabama. Both of his parents encouraged young Aldean as he progressed musically, from age 14, after watching the country-music awards on television, he wanted to perform on stage. With his mothers help, he performed at the local VFW hall in Macon and he sang John Andersons song Seminole Wind and Tracy Lawrences Sticks and Stones. He would later say that the entire audience – all ten – applauded, and he then began performing at area talent contests and local fairs. At 15, he joined the band at Georgia nightspot Nashville South. Aldean chose his name as there were already a number of people called Jason Williams including a well-known basketball player. In order to out, he changed the spelling of his middle name, Aldine. Aldean married his school sweetheart, Jessica Ussery, on August 4,2001. Together the couple have two daughters, Kendyl and Keeley, on April 25,2013, seven months after Aldean admitted to acting inappropriately with former American Idol contestant Brittany Kerr, news outlets reported Aldean and his wife had separated in January. Aldean filed for divorce on April 26, citing irreconcilable differences, the couple were married on March 21,2015. Aldean owns 1,300 acres of land just outside Nashville, Aldean is a Georgia Bulldogs fan and spends every Saturday he can watching games. In 2015, Forbes estimated Aldeans annual income at $43.5 million, after high school, with his fathers help, Aldean and his band performed at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri

10.
Rex Allen
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Rex Elvie Allen was an American film and television actor, singer and songwriter, known as the Arizona Cowboy and as the narrator of many Disney nature and Western productions. For contributions to the industry, Allen was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Allen was born to Horace E. Allen and Luella Faye Clark on a ranch in Mud Springs Canyon, as a boy he played guitar and sang at local functions with his fiddle-playing father until high-school graduation when he toured the Southwest as a rodeo rider. He got his start in business on the East Coast as a vaudeville singer, then found work in Chicago as a performer on the WLS-AM program. He left the show in 1949 and moved to Hollywood, in 1948 he signed with Mercury Records where he recorded a number of successful country music albums until 1952, when he switched to the Decca label where he continued to make records into the 1970s. He also recorded one album for Buena Vista in the 1960s, when singing cowboys such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were very much in vogue in American film, in 1949 Republic Pictures in Hollywood gave him a screen test and put him under contract. Beginning in 1950, Allen starred as himself in 19 of Hollywoods Western movies, Allens comic-relief sidekick in his first few pictures was Buddy Ebsen and then character actor Slim Pickens. One of Allens most successful singles was Dont Go Near The Indians and it features The Merry Melody Singers. The song is a tale of a man who disobeys his fathers advice stated in the title. The other secret, His son cannot marry Nova Lee because shes the biological sister. Allen was married three times, all three ended in divorce. First, on August 25,1946, he married Bonnie Linder and his first marriage was to Doris Winsor, with whom he had one child. His final marriage was to Virginia Hudson, on November 25,1992 and his five children included Rex Allen Jr. who became a singer like his father. Allen wrote and recorded songs, a number of which were featured in his own films. Late in coming to the industry, his career was relatively short as the popularity of westerns faded by the mid 1950s. Allen has the distinction of making the last singing western in 1954, in 1961 he was one of five rotating hosts for NBC-TVs Five Star Jubilee. The work earned him the nickname, The Voice of the West, most notably, perhaps, he narrated the original 1963 version of The Incredible Journey. He also was the voice of the father on Walt Disneys Carousel of Progress, a 1993 renovation replaced Allen with Jean Shepherd as the voice of the father, but Allen was given a cameo as the grandfather in the final scene

11.
GG Allin
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Kevin Michael GG Allin was an American singer, songwriter and record producer, who performed and recorded with many groups during his career. AllMusic and G4TVs Thats Tough have called him the most spectacular degenerate in rock & roll history and the toughest rock star in the world, respectively. Known more for his notorious stage antics than for his music, he recorded prolifically, not only in the rock genre, but also in spoken word, country. His lyrics, which often expressed themes of misogyny, pedophilia, blasphemy and racism, polarized listeners, when questioned about his music and shows, Allin often replied that he was trying to make rock music dangerous again. Allin promised for years that he would commit suicide on stage during one of his concerts. Allin was born Jesus Christ Allin at Weeks Memorial Hospital in Lancaster, New Hampshire, the younger of two sons to Merle Colby Allin, Sr. and Arleta Gunther. He was given name because his father told his wife that Jesus Christ had visited him. His older brother, Merle, was unable to pronounce Jesus properly and called him Jeje, the family lived in a log cabin with no running water or electricity in Groveton, New Hampshire. Merle Sr. was a recluse and religious fanatic, who threatened his family with death. In an essay titled The First Ten Years, Allin wrote that his wanted to kill his family in a murder-suicide. He despised pleasure and allowed his family very little contact with others and they lived a primitive existence and were more like prisoners than a family. Allin also stated that his attempted to escape before she filed for divorce. Allin said that he was glad to experience such an upbringing, in 1961, Arleta filed for divorce from Merle Sr. as his mental instability was worsening. Allin and his brother were from that time raised by their mother and stepfather, Arleta changed her younger sons legal name to Kevin Michael Allin on March 2,1962, during his first year of schooling. Arleta had allowed his name to stand until this point. Allin, a student, was placed in special education classes. According to his brother, he experienced bullying by fellow students for nonconformity. In his second year of school, he began attending school cross-dressed